On Thursday, Velti – creator of the world’s largest mobile marketing platform – announced plans to acquire China’s largest mobile ad exchange and network, CASEE.
Dubbed the AdMob of China, CASEE offers publishers and advertisers like Kodak, GM, QQ and Google the ability to target and personalize advertising in different provinces and cities.
According to Velti, the deal is a win-win, as the acquisition positions Velti as the leader in one of the world’s most explosive emerging markets – China, home to more than 800 million mobile subscribers.
“We are confident that joining forces with the world leader in mobile marketing will help accelerate the growth of our publisher and advertiser customer bases by increasing our exposure and attractiveness to global brands,” said Xin Ye, CEO of CASEE. “We’re particularly excited about the strong synergies between our mobile marketplace capabilities and those of Velti’s exchange properties and the combination of mobile advertising and mobile marketing that Velti mGage offers.”
The proposed acquisition, says Velti, will engender a self-service mobile marketplace platform that:
- Connects more than 10,000 mobile content publishers and over 2,000 iPhone and Android application partners with advertisers ranging from multinational companies to local, small and medium-sized enterprises;
- Offers both advertisers and publishers the ability to target and personalize advertising in different provinces and cities; and
- Provides straightforward self-serve web tools with transparent and robust reporting.
“Our plan to acquire the remaining interests in CASEE reflects our commitment to supporting the global needs of our clients,” said Alex Moukas, CEO of Velti. “The acquisition also positions us optimally to capitalize on the rapidly expanding mobile marketing and advertising market in China… Online advertising spending in China, which historically has served as a precursor to mobile ad spending, is expected to surpass $5 billion this year, an increase of more than 30 percent over last year according to eMarketer. Combined with our 2010 acquisition of Mobclix, this will significantly enhance our global mobile exchange footprint, which is key to our strategy for continued growth.”
